The technology relates to a vehicle steering control apparatus that may set a target course and may perform a control to allow for follow-up travel along the target course.
In recent years, various developments and proposals have been made in vehicle steering control technology to assist drivers in driving more comfortably and safely. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2010-36757 discloses a technique regarding a lane deviation prevention control apparatus that prevents an own vehicle from deviating from lanes. This technique involves: calculating a target steering angle of a steering mechanism to allow a lateral position of an own vehicle to be close to a target lateral position; setting a first steering force to attain the target steering angle, based on a deviation between the target steering angle and a real steering angle, by means of a steering angle feedback control; and setting a second steering force to attain the target steering angle, by means of a feedforward control of a steering force based on the target steering angle and an amount of a vehicle status. When determination is made on follow-up travel to a preceding vehicle, a target steering force is so set as to raise a rate of the first steering force, as compared to a case in which no determination is made on the follow-up travel.